Paydiant raises $12M, tackles mobile payments like it ain’t no thang

While the likes of Google, Square, and PayPal are loudly battling it out in the mobile landscape arena, Paydiant doesn’t need any of that noise. Instead of making itself famous, the company provides a white-label mobile payment solution that brands can easily push as their own.

Today, Paydiant announced that it has landed an additional $12 million in a second round of funding, bringing its total funding to just under $20 million.

Because Paydiant is more focused on pushing its customer’s brands instead of its own, it’s not nearly as well-known as bigger mobile payments entrants. But that’s not a very big deal to Paydiant founder Chris Gardner.

“Everybody that’s trying to solve the mobile payments problem seems to have Visa envy,” Gardner told VentureBeat in an interview last week. “We said, hey, regardless if that becomes a viable model, we believe there’s an opportunity for someone to offer mobile wallets and offers solutions to brands.”

Paydiant’s mobile payment technology supports QR codes and existing cellphone cameras, so consumers won’t have to wait for NFC phones to take advantage of it. (Paydiant is also working on NFC support, but it’s not a primary concern for the company as it is for Isis and Google Wallet.) Merchants also don’t need to upgrade any equipment to use Paydiant.

Paydiant is currently in regional trials with 5 of the 15 top U.S. banks, and with the new funding it will begin to work on gathering retail partners. Gardner tells me the company will be hiring its first sales team soon and potentially some marketing folks as well. Since its first round of funding last year, Paydiant has landed a number of pilot programs and is generating revenue, Gardner says.

Gardner said there’s plenty of room for many companies to be successful within mobile payments. After all, consumers won’t end up using just one mobile wallet app once the industry takes off. “At the end of the day, the new wallet is the phone,” Gardner said.

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